Switchable dual-wavelength cylindrical vector beam generation from a passively mode-locked fiber laser based on carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Cylindrical vector beams (CVBs) with axial symmetry in both polarization and field intensity have attracted much attention because of their unique optical properties. Conventional methods to obtain CVBs including direct modulation of light beams in free space and high-order mode excitation by offset splicing single-mode fiber (SMF) with few-mode fiber (FMF) usually works at single wavelength with rather narrow bandwidth. Here, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate switchable dual-wavelength CVB generation from a passively mode-locked fiber laser using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as saturable absorber for mode-locking and a home-made mode-selective coupler (MSC) as both mode converter and birefringence filter. In experiments, the mode-locked fiber laser delivers CVB pulses of dual-wavelength (1532.5 nm, 1555.5 nm) and corresponding single wavelength with duration of hundreds of femtosecond, respectively. Moreover, the output polarization status is switchable between radially and azimuthally polarized states. The mode-locked CVBs with wavelength and polarization flexibility may have potential applications in mode-division multiplexing optical fiber communication, nanoparticle manipulation, material processing, nonlinear optics, and so on.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTQE.2017.2761126
Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Aston Institute of Photonics Technology (AIPT)
Additional Information: © 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Uncontrolled Keywords: carbon nanotubes,cylindrical vector beam,Dual-wavelength,Fiber lasers,Laser excitation,Laser mode locking,mode-locked fiber lasers,mode-selective coupler,Optical fiber communication,Optical fiber couplers,Optical fiber polarization,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics,Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Publication ISSN: 0792-1233
Last Modified: 08 Jan 2024 08:34
Date Deposited: 06 Nov 2017 11:20
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Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2017-10-11
Accepted Date: 2017-09-30
Submitted Date: 2017-06-30
Authors: Zhang, Zuxing
Cai, Yu
Wang, Jie
Wan, Hongdan
Zhang, Lin (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-1691-5577)

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